Jury retires in acid attack trial

Jurors trying three men over an acid attack which left a 25-year-old man disfigured retired today to consider their verdicts.

Awais Akram was allegedly targeted in July last year in revenge over his intimate relationship with a married woman he had met online.

He was left with 47 per cent burns and looking like a "cross between a zombie from a horror movie and the Incredible Hulk", the Old Bailey jury has been told.

Danish-born Mr Akram was said to have been attacked in Leytonstone, east London, after his liaison with Sadia Khatoon was discovered by her husband and family.

Khatoon's brother, Mohammed Vakas, 26, and her cousin, Mohammed Adeel, 20, both of Walthamstow, north east London, and a 17-year-old youth all deny conspiring with Khatoon and her husband, Shakeel Abassi, to murder Mr Akram.

Vakas has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, a charge his two co-defendants deny.

Khatoon and Abassi were last known to be in Pakistan, jurors have heard.

The jury was later sent home until next week.